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Cisco MDS Series vs Dell PowerStore comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco MDS Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
4th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerStore
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
164
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (1st), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 5.9%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 26.3%, up from 23.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Dell PowerStore26.3%
Cisco MDS Series5.9%
Other67.8%
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

OğuzKalaycı - PeerSpot reviewer
system engineer at Yaşar Holding
Ensures consistent availability during updates and integrates seamlessly
I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections The product is very stable and performs well. During the update periods, the devices do not need to reload, ensuring constant availability. It is easy to set up and use. I do not have a central management…
reviewer2304864 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vmware Windows Senior Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Resilience has supported proactive management and secured audit readiness across multiple sites
The resilience in Dell PowerStore benefits my company from an auditing perspective because we know we have that resilience in place. I see Dell PowerStore playing a bigger role in the future because we are starting to use it more, and that is pushing it. The biggest return on investment for me when using Dell PowerStore is scalability. Scalability is key. I can amplify that scalability is the biggest return on investment because we have redundancy between two sites; if something goes down, we have to manage it, but we want to do it proactively.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The product is easy to use."
"SAN switches in Cisco MDS Series are a valuable feature of the solution for our company."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"The issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."
"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"The product is very stable and performs well."
"Dell PowerStore is a mid-range product that can suit small companies and provides good IOPS and performance."
"Dell PowerStore has impacted my organization positively because we have reduced outages."
"When compared to Pure Storage, Dell PowerStore's cost was quite attractive."
"PowerStore has helped us reduce our Capex by 20% to 40%."
"The solution is very easy to implement."
"My company found the tool to be really easy to use, expand, and manage."
"The main feature of Dell PowerStore is its support for NVMe as well as hybrid solutions."
"For the moment, our evaluation of Dell PowerStore is really good; there are no production incidents, it is perfect for us, and Dell PowerStore is well designed for our active-active multi–data center solution."
 

Cons

"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."
"The solution's management interface and GUI need improvement."
"I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"The product is very expensive."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"The customer support is slow and has room for improvement."
"The support for Dell PowerStore is similar to others; not too extraordinary, but acceptable."
"One thing they need to work on is creating an app sync or the Metro Cluster functionality. Currently, it requires a different hop as we have to add multiple switches to build that functionality for replication from one data center to another. If that could be bundled in a base Dell PowerStore by default, it would be great."
"The only improvement that might be required, though not significantly, relates to the features that allow for support, specifically the call home features."
"From our region perspective, it would be beneficial to have support with local languages for Dell PowerStore. However, English is acceptable for us as it serves our needs."
"Earlier the quality of support was excellent, but now it has deteriorated. We do not get quick support, and we have to wait longer to get the support."
"The solution’s security and technical support could be improved."
"In terms of improving Dell PowerStore, they should have simplified documents available for customers, not just for the support team."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"Licensing is very simple. Everything is included in the basic license. There are no concerns about having to pay to add a feature. Everything is there."
"Dell PowerStore charges for the hardware warranty every three years. The price will depend on the storage model or how much hardware it has."
"When we compared it with the other solutions, the pricing of PowerStore was equal. The pricing is good."
"In the pricing and licensing department, the product is always too expensive."
"There's still a cap on the upgrade path, where you can consume all the engines within the frame before you have to go to another frame... Normally, we exceed the IOPS on the frames before we can ever exhaust the storage, so anything they can do to help us avoid stranded storage capacity, capacity that we couldn't get to, would be beneficial."
"The price of Dell EMC PowerStore could be better, it is a bit expensive."
"The solution's price was comparable to other products for the use case, size, and setup."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
10%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise81
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?
The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.
What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?
I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling.
What is your primary use case for Cisco MDS Series?
I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections.
What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?
PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...
How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?
Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...
What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?
Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700
PowerStore
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

National Rugby League
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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.